India blacks out from New Delhi to Kolkata as grid fails

India’s electricity grid collapsed for the second time in as many days, cutting off more than half the country’s 1.2 billion population in the nation’s worst power crisis on record.

Commuter trains in the capital stopped running, forcing the operator, Delhi Metro Rail Corp., to evacuate passengers, spokesman Anuj Dayal said. NTPC Ltd., the biggest generator, shut down 36 percent of its capacity as a precaution, Chairman Arup Roy Choudhury said by telephone. More than 100 inter-city trains were stranded, Northern Railway spokesman Neeraj Sharma said, as the blackout engulfed states in the north and east.

The failures have exposed the urgency behind Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s effort to attract $400 billion in investment and ease an electricity deficit that is holding back economic growth in Asia’s third-biggest economy. The blackout today spread to at least five more states -- Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Sikkim. Businesses and households in seven provinces yesterday turned to generators for at least 15 hours. The 12 states are home to about 640 million people.

“It points to yet another glaring hole in India’s infrastructure,” said Rohit Singh, an analyst with IDBI Capital Market Services. “India clearly has a serious problem on its hands and hasn’t done enough to ensure these situations remain a one-off. An exponential increase in investment is required to upgrade the grid.”

Transmission Network

State-owned Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd., which operates the world’s largest transmission networks, manages power lines including in the northern and eastern regions. NTPC and billionaire Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Power Ltd. operate power stations in north India that feed electricity into the national grid. The northern and eastern grids together account for about 40 percent of India’s total electricity generating capacity, according to the Central Electricity Authority.

The grids in the east, north, west and the northeast are interconnected, making them vulnerable, said Jayant Deo, managing director of the Indian Energy Exchange Ltd. The outage has also spread to seven additional states in the northeast, NDTV television channel reported.

“Without a definitive plan by the government to gradually bring the grids back online, this problem could absolutely get worse,” Deo said.

Singh is seeking to secure $400 billion of investment in the power industry in the next five years as he targets an additional 76,000 megawatts in generation by 2017. India has missed every annual target to add electricity production capacity since 1951.